Liverpool won’t have Fabinho missing for upcoming games as Jurgen Klopp told the official club website that the Brazilian is ‘OK’ after clashing heads with Cardiff City’s Zahore.
Fabinho was withdrawn against the Welsh side despite only being on the pitch for four minutes. He suffered a clash of heads with Zahore and the Liverpool medical team deemed him unfit to continue.
“It was very unlucky. Fabinho is OK but he had a bit of shaky legs and that’s of course not a good sign in the moment,” Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com.
“It’s a 100 per cent ‘yes’ or go off; if it’s 95 per cent in that game in that position, we cannot make that decision [to stay on]. It’s all good.”
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It might not be a pleasant thing to see a player leave the pitch due to injury but the Liverpool medical staff need to be congratulated on their willingness to withdraw a player at the slightest hint of concussion or head trauma.
As Klopp said, risks cannot be taken if club doctors don’t think a player is fully fit to continue.
When you consider how many aerial duels a defensive midfielder needs to attempt in the Premier League, Fabinho would have been in even more danger of exacerbating his injury.
Liverpool ultimately won the game and Fabinho will be fit to play when Huddersfield visit Anfield on Friday. No lasting damage has been done to either the player or the Reds’ season by removing him from the field of play on Sunday.
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Liverpool are still in with a shout of winning a historic league and European cup double this season. With all of Real Madrid, Manchester City, PSG, Juve and Bayern Munich already knocked out, the only remaining ‘big club’ is Barcelona.
The Spanish outfit will face Liverpool in the semifinals and if Klopp can guide his side past Lionel Messi’s Barca, the German will seriously fancy his chances of beating Ajax or Tottenham in the final.
Of course, Liverpool still need City to slip up in the Premier League to have any chance of being named champions but with a few tricky games still in store for Pep Guardiola’s men, Reds fans still have hope.